Labor back on the attack over rail

The row over the funding of rail promises by both major political parties in WA is continuing.

State Government

The Opposition Leader Mark McGowan has seized on comments by the Premier that the Liberal Party's rail plans might be delayed if federal funding is not received.

Colin Barnett made the admission after his Treasurer Troy Buswell revealed he would be asking the Federal Government to pay for half of its MAX light rail, airport rail link and Perth-Darwin highway projects.

Mr Buswell stated the projects were not contingent on money from the Federal Government, but Mr Barnett conceded on ABC's 7.30 program that if Commonwealth funding was not forthcoming, delays were likely.

"We would expect that the Commonwealth would come to the party," Mr Barnett said.

"Transport is one area where the Commonwealth does contribute significantly and these are exactly the sort of projects that would get joint State, Commonwealth funding on."

But Mr McGowan disagrees and has described Mr Barnett's comments as the iceberg that sank the Titanic.

Mr McGowan says while the Commonwealth has a history of funding road projects, it has previously knocked back repeated requests to fund state rail projects.

"They said they'd be building it according to a timetable and it would open in 2018-2020," he said.

"Now they're saying if we don't get federal money, who knows when it would be built. Mr Barnett has just sunk the Liberal Party's plans faster than the Titanic."

Meanwhile Mr McGowan has reaffirmed his intention to build Metronet in the set timeframe with or without Federal funding if he is elected in next weekend's state poll.

He has been under pressure since Treasury documents released on Friday put the cost of Metronet at $5.2 billion over eight years.

Labor had costed the project at $3.8 billion and the Liberals had claimed it would cost $6.4 billion.